Iranian Alert -- December 5, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

Most Wanted: Hashemi Rafsanjani

About: Born in 1934 in the village of Rafsanjan. His father, Ali Hashemi, was a clergyman, a farmer, and breadwinner of an 11-member family (of nine children). Mr. Ali Hashemi studied religious sciences for some time and became knowledgeable of the Quran and Islamic principles, and the Hashemi family was practically the religious authority of its local area.

Since there were no schools near the village, Mr.Rafsanjani started his studies in a Maktab (school) at the age of five under an elderly Seyed. At the age of 14 (1948) he went to Qom for further religious studies, and started his student period by receiving a small monthly sum from his father. He was encouraged mainly by his father and an elder cousin. During this period, in addition to religious education, he spent summer vacations following high school studies. He studied his Howzeh subjects under general teachers, and during later years he studied under Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Borujerdi, Allameh Tabatabai and Ayatollah Montazeri. The teacher that had the greatest influence on the spirit of Mr. Hashemi and to whom he was greatly indebted for learning religious sciences, was Imam Khomeini. Mr. Hashemi studied under him for about seven years.

Rafsanjani helped found the Islamic Republican party and built his political power base as speaker of the parliament (1980-89). From 1988 to 1989 he was also acting commander in chief of the armed forces. In 1989, Rafsanjani was elected president, receiving some 95% of the vote. A pragmatic conservative, he sought to revive Iran's badly flagging economy on free-market principles and moved to improve relations with the West, reestablish Iran as a regional power, and gradually reopen the country to foreign investment. He was reelected in 1993 with two thirds of the vote but was barred from seeking a third term in the 1997 elections. In 2000 he was narrowly elected to parliament, but he soon resigned his seat.

Behind the scenes:

Rafsanjani started his criminal career back in the 60s while fighting Reza pahlavi. Jailed briefly for participating in the assassination of Prime Minister Hasan Ali Mansur, 1965 followed by an intermittent imprisonment for involvement with the Mujahedin al-Khalq guerrilla group, 1971-78. The same group of which he ordered and orchestrated the death of thousands of its members.

A strong proponent of terrorism, via financing, Rafsanjani openly supports all Shiite terrorist groups in Lebanon and Palestine. That includes the Hamas, Fatah, ,Hizbollah and the sorts. According to a Berlin court Rafsanjani was convicted of indirectly committing/ killing Iranian opposition leaders based in Europe.

Rafsanjani has used and abused any which way possible to get to his goals while eliminating all his opponents by killing them, doing so in such a sly manner that it never follows him around.

Rafsanjani is officially the richest cleric in the IRI. He has the majority of his wealth invested abroad and according to some sources owns huge plots of commercial property in Canada. A killer who is the richest man in Iran by some accounts, who is living a lavish life while proclaiming that all that his government has ever stood for has been just, him and his likes being the exceptions that's never to be mentioned ofcourse.

http://www.radiofarda.com/transcripts/topstory/2003/12/20031203_0230_0306_0541_EN.asp

•The Supreme Leader handed over to President Khatami the 20-year planning document, prepared as part of the fourth five-year economic development plan. The 20-year plan had been drafted by the Expediency Council and does not go beyond the same general guidelines and goals that during the past 25 years have been repeatedly pronounced by the authorities: elevation and deepening of religious philosophy and religious outlook, implementation of Islamic values in thought and action, strengthening national unity and identity based on Islam and the Islamic revolution, deepening the spirit of enemy-recognition, purifying the country's cultural atmosphere, endeavoring to implement social justice, job creation and lowering the jobless rate, endeavoring to reduce the economy's dependence on oil income, struggle against (Western) cultural aggression, and the like. What is new in this document are the slogans adopted from the reformists' platform, such as religious democracy and institutionalization of “permitted” freedoms and avoiding tensions in relations with foreign countries. Observers say, at the outset of the upcoming Majles elections, the conservative majority of the Expediency Council and the Supreme Leader, who have been blocking the reformists for the past six years, have now adopted the reformists' campaign slogans. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)

•The cabinet is due to review the fourth five-year economic plan next Sunday, deputy director of the macro economy office of the management and plan organization Mohammad Kordbacheh said. The government has more or less finished reviewing the budget bill for the next fiscal year, which will begin on March 22, 2004. The budget bill will soon go to the Majles for final approval, he added. (Baktash Khamsehpour)

--Same old, same old.. by the way if you haven't figured out, it's now so plan and obvious that Khatami was a 'figure-head', working within the hard-line establishment the entire time. The new slogans of the hard-liners are the same Khatami used, and he's regularly used for lucrative oil deals with the EU while human rights conditions and overall conditions in Iran worsen.

Both Khatami and Khameini have been calling for mass turnouts at the elections, other words Khameini is willing for the selected group of people GC picks to win as Reformists because he knows they mean nothing and they're just a part of the system controlled by the GC rather than the people boycott the elections which most are calling for.

Top reformist lawmaker severely beaten by hard-line vigilantes during visit to central Iran
Friday December 05, 2003
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)

Hard-line vigilantes attacked a close aide to Iran's president as he was about to give a speech Friday, repeatedly punching and kicking him, his wife and a witness said.

Mohsen Mirdamadi, a prominent reformist lawmaker who heads the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was treated at a hospital for a head wound after the attack in the central city of Yazd, his wife, Elaheh Mojarradi, said.

A witness, Mohammad Reza Raji, told The Associated Press by phone from Yazd, that ``as he took the podium, around 15 vigilantes rushed into the hall where Mirdamadi was to speak. They began punching him and kicking him from every side.''

Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi condemned the attack, saying it was part of the hard-liners' campaign before Feb. 20 parliamentary elections.

``The attack appears to be a new strategy on the part of hard-liners to intimidate reformers and disrupt their activities ahead of the elections. They have taken up arms now,'' Abtahi told The AP.

Iran is locked in a power struggle between conservatives, who regard themselves as defenders of the 1979 Islamic revolution, and liberals, who wish to relax the religious constraints and create a freer society.

Mirdamadi was in Yazd to meet local officials of his party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front. He is a senior member of the party, the country's largest reformist group.

Hard-line thugs have frequently disrupted gatherings of reformists but are rarely brought to court. Iran's judiciary is run by conservatives, who have imprisoned dozens of writers and political activists and banned scores of liberal publications.

In June, student-led protests against the ruling establishment were effectively halted by attacks from hard-line vigilantes.

Mirdamadi's wife said the assault showed the political situation in Iran ``where hard-liners have a free hand to commit crimes without punishment, while reformist intellectuals and writers are punished for expressing their opinion.''

Iran's Mullahs Try Hard, Turn Iran To Iranestan

Iranian.ws
Dec 5, 2003, 21:38

Iran news - You(Iranian) better start getting used to being called an arab and very soon will be Iranestan, instead of Iran.

The Arab League on Wednesday welcomed the prospect of non-Arab nations Iran and Turkey joining the organization as observers. "We welcome Iran's and Turkey's requests" to join the Arab League as observers, Secretary General Amr Mussa told reporters at Cairo airport before leaving for the United States. Mussa said the league received similar requests "from neighboring countries and countries from Latin America," adding that these requests "are currently studied as part of changes concerning the restructuring of the league."

Iran's deputy foreign minister for Middle East and North African affairs, Mohammad Sobhani, "presented the request that Iran become an observer at the Arab League during his meeting with Amr Mussa on November 13," an Iranian paper reported Monday. Meanwhile, Mussa said in January that Turkey could enter the organization as an observer. Established in 1945, the 22-member Arab League is based in Cairo.

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_890.shtml

Saddam and Conspiracy Theories by Amir Taheri

Arab News
8.5.2003

We don-t know if Saddam Hussein, in his hide-out, reads the Arab press these days. If he were he would not be too happy with the way his self-styled friends are commenting on his life work.

Broadly speaking, Saddam-s demise has produced three positions among those who lament it.

The first comes from nostalgics of pan-Arabism who would rather have Iraq crucified for decades than witness an Arab despot thrown out of his palace by the Americans.

The second position is that of those who claim that Saddam was a pawn in a power game played by the West, specially the United States, and was discarded because he decided to play for himself.

The third position would have us believe that Saddam was a well-meaning leader whose naivetÈ was exploited by big powers in the service of sinister designs.

The first position is beyond rational analysis because it is based on what sociologists label ?nexal¦ sentiments, a more sophisticated term for tribal prejudices.

The second position is no compliment to him. Saddam compared himself to Hammurabi, a king of ancient Babylon who is supposed to have promulgated the first laws in human history, thus providing a structure without which there could be no civilization.

The third position, Saddam being misled by the big powers, is by far the most popular. People across the Arab world find it hard to accept that an Arab leader could have made so many mistakes for so long without having been misled by others.

Why did Saddam decide to murder the Kurdish leader Mulla Mostafa Barzani in 1969 thus provoking a civil war that lasted for six years? The answer given by adepts of the conspiracy theory is simple: Saddam acted on fake information planted by the Israeli secret service Mossad. The Israelis, so the theory goes, wanted to keep Iraq busy and out of any Arab coalition that might form against the Jewish state.

And why did Saddam decide to close the Shatt Al-Arab border waterway to Iranian ships almost at the same time, thus provoking a bloody border war that ended with his humiliating defeat in 1975?

Again the conspiracy theorists have the answer: The Soviets sought a base in the Gulf at a time that the British were preparing to withdraw from East of Suez, and hoped that Iraq, threatened by Iran, would give them what they wanted.

OK, But why did Saddam invade Iran in 1980?

Here is the conspiracy theorists- answer: The US wanted to contain the revolution in Iran and urged Saddam to start a war. And what was it that prompted Saddam to invade Kuwait in 1990?

Here the answers are a bit more complicated. We are told that Saddam misunderstood what he was told by April Glaspie, then US ambassador in Baghdad. Glaspie had told Saddam that Iraq-s dispute with Kuwait was an internal matter and had better be sorted out through bilateral talks. Saddam had interpreted this as a sign that Washington would not mind if his armies annexed Kuwait.

Well, well. And why did Saddam insist on playing games with the United Nations for 13 years to the point that he left the US and its allies no choice but to topple him?

Again the conspiracy theorists have an interesting answer: The US asked some allies, including France and Germany, to make noises against the use of force, thus giving Saddam the illusion that he would, once again, escape the worst.

According to conspiracy theorists Saddam never had a will of his own and could be manipulated by anyone who wished to use him.

But the fact is that Saddam was the ultimate Arab despot with a perverted vision of his role in history. He was the victim of the system he had created ? a system in which the chief never hears different views and always decides alone.

Saddam was a gambler. Only he gambled with the life and the future of his people. Even if he were deceived by this or that foreign power, he remains responsible for his deeds and misdeeds.

He could render a service to his people, perhaps even to his place in history, if he were to come out of his hiding to face trial. A proper trial would give him a chance to explain and defend his record, and to show that he was not a mere pawn in a game played by others. Such a trial would also help the Iraqis, and Arabs in general, understand the roots of the evil that has afflicted their politics for decades.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=35928&d=5&m=12&y=2003

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